djh0101010:Pancreatic Cancer is a harsh biatch. Sending you the best possible thoughts, ladodger34. I'm intentionally not adding my stories about personal experience with it, because, it wouldn't help, and I'd rather offer my support instead.

When he was diagnosed, I read everything I could. Since he wasn't my dad, I read the horror stories and the successes and kind of filtered them a bit for my wife.

After reading all the crappy stories, it has helped me remind my wife how lucky we are when the most recent scans say that it isn't spreading and the tumor is the same size. It shrunk in every scan for almost the first year and now it is just remaining the same.

I know it is an awful disease, but we are 14 months into it and while there are some things that concern us, he has outlived most PC patients.

TFA: Her most searing regret was that she would never experience becoming a grandmother. So her sons presented her with copies of the children's book Goodnight Moon, and she recorded a version so that one day her grandchildren could be tucked in by the grandmother they never met.

While this is a fantastic idea in theory, there is almost no chance that they will ever play that recording for the grandchildren without crying like mad.Something about that book strikes a chord under normal circumstances, and I have no idea why.When my son was a baby, I was reading it to him, and I started crying. No explanation for that.

I know it is an awful disease, but we are 14 months into it and while there are some things that concern us, he has outlived most PC patients.

Just wanted to pass on good thoughts to you and yours. I too have a crappy PC story, but there's no need to share it.

I hope he keeps outliving most PC patients.

Us, too. I saw breast cancer get the best of my grandma. She had a similar prognosis as my FIL. We got 18 months with her and I was a shiatty grandson that decided to ignore it as much as possible. But I will never forget her last day. Her mind was still there, but her body couldn't do it anymore.

ladodger34:I will say that grandkid stuff is beyond powerful. My FIL was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Oct '12. At the time, my wife was pregnant with #3 and we weren't even sure he would make it to the following February when our daughter was born. He is still doing okay and has survived beyond what most PC patients could ever hope for.

Our kids give him a reason to wake up everyday and get chemo every couple of weeks. It's amazing to us that not that long ago, we weren't sure that he would see his granddaughter and now he will get to celebrate her 1st birthday in a few weeks.

My dad died in February of very aggressive prostate cancer. He was on hospice care and I am grateful that I was a SAHM and my daughter was not yet in school. We got to spend as much time with him as we wanted and having his granddaughter there made a huge difference in his mood (especially at Christmas). Eventually we did have to go home, until we got the call a month later. I arrived at 11:30pm, talked to him, kissed him on the forehead and said goodnight. He died at noon the next day with his hand in mine.I man, i really need to dust in here...

digitalrain:I stumbled across an unexpected gift, though. Back in 2004, Nils Lofgren, who had been a Rockville / DC area localmusician back in the day, had come back to Rockville and did a lot of studio recording there. My dad was very goodfriends w/ the owner of the studio and a musician in his own right and also had a fair amount of production know how.

He helped with the recording and production of a lot of Nils' music in the studio that year, which is cool. But the reallycool thing is that I was on YouTube about an hour ago and just because I wanted to hear the song, I searched forGrin's "Like Rain" and happened to come up with a version that had been recorded live in Rockville in 2004. I waslistening to it and holy crap - in the harmonies, there was my dad's voice. He was singing backup ...

Grew up in central VA in the 70's - Grin was hot! I'm guessing Nils hasn't done any flips on stage in a while

New York Times' editor, Bill Keller, was quoted as saying "Marcy Glanz died as she lived: selfishly. She ended her life with a lavish display of self-centeredness and lack of consideration for the feelings of those around her."

Stories like these are indeed sad, from our perspective here in this reality, but often death is a catalyst for great change in awareness. This was the case for me after my grandma's death.

Whether we choose to believe or not believe in continuation of consciousness after death is a personal choice. I personally dislike belief systems (which is why I always shunned religion), and I prefer to figure things out for myself.

From my own personal experiences, there is no doubt in my mind that our minds survive the death of the body. There is a direct correlation between electricity and consciousness. In fact, the way that death is determined (brain death) is determining the absence of the electromagnetic field within the body. Whether you choose to believe the connection between electricity and consciousness or not, the correlation IS there. It is undeniable.

If you are observant enough, you will see that our sense of presence is not defined by the boundaries of the body. We all have electromagnetic fields that extend way beyond the body. We 'vibe' each other out all the time. You could say, quite correctly, that the field is the DRIVER, and the body is the VEHICLE. Like a Prius... haha

Lastly, you should really experiment with 'remote viewing'. It is very easy to learn. When two people, separated by space, think about each other at the exact same moment, there is a psychic connection that is established. You can FEEL the awareness presence of the other person! It is very real. I've been teaching this to others for about a year now. People have come up to me and made comments. I've seen changes in how people respond and react to me.

Personally, I believe that remote viewing is a precursor to telepathic communication of some kind. Whether we are directly exchanging thoughts at a higher level of awareness, or just interpreting what we feel from others with our own thoughts, something is definitely happening. If you don't believe this is true, start thinking a bunch of negative shiat about your boss or someone else you regularly interact with.... I guarantee you will create some negative 'static' between the both of you...

If you are observant enough, you will see that our sense of presence is not defined by the boundaries of the body. We all have electromagnetic fields that extend way beyond the body. We 'vibe' each other out all the time. You could say, quite correctly, that the field is the DRIVER, and the body is the VEHICLE. Like a Prius... haha

Lastly, you should really experiment with 'remote viewing'. It is very easy to learn. When two people, separated by space, think about each other at the exact same moment, there is a psychic connection that is established. You can FEEL the awareness presence of the other person! It is very real. I've been teaching this to others for about a year now. People have come up to me and made comments. I've seen changes in how people respond and react to me.

Personally, I believe that remote viewing is a precursor to telepathic communication of some kind. Whether we are directly exchanging thoughts at a higher level of awareness, or just interpreting what we feel from others with our own thoughts, something is definitely happening. If you don't believe this is true, start thi ...

My ex died from colon cancer.Saw her go from someone full of life to a shriveled up old woman who could barely walk.She had one last good weekend at a friend's wedding even though she was in a wheelchair by then.

My wife's Grandfather died right before Christmas. Luckily for us, we had our child in October so she was around to spend Thanksgiving with him. He had the chance to meet her, hold her and play with her. Lots of photos were taken. She won't remember, but at least she had the chance to meet him.

djh0101010:Pancreatic Cancer is a harsh biatch. Sending you the best possible thoughts, ladodger34. I'm intentionally not adding my stories about personal experience with it, because, it wouldn't help, and I'd rather offer my support instead.

Around 5 years ago, come Valentine Day, during my yearly physical, as my doctor was reading the results of my blood work, she went "Hmmm".

It seems that my bilirubins were elevated. And she proceeded to worry out every possible implication of that. And dismissed those as impossible. Until she came to cancer of the pancreas. Which she said was "unlikely". Well, everyone who has ever read Sherlock Holmes knows that once you have eliminated the impossible, what's left, however unlikely is the answer. So, we scheduled an MRI to get a peak at my pancreas. And for 2 weeks I lived with the knowledge that I had cancer of the pancreas and that meant around 2 months to live. People, I was so noble. I blessed you and every living thing. Even Republicans. I skipped all the early and middle steps of mourning and went straight for sainthood.

But as you all know, and as Fate would have it, I did not have cancer of pancreas. I had elevated bilirubins.

SearchN:My wife's Grandfather died right before Christmas. Luckily for us, we had our child in October so she was around to spend Thanksgiving with him. He had the chance to meet her, hold her and play with her. Lots of photos were taken. She won't remember, but at least she had the chance to meet him.

/Good for you Lady.//You did it the right way.

I'm not sure my baby girl will remember her grandpa, but we will always know how much he loved her.

As much as she is my princess (2 boys, 1 girl) she really is her grandpa's princess which in itself is nuts. My wife's biggest failing to her dad is that she was a girl but his granddaughter is his pride and joy. His grandsons probably rank 1 and 2 for most important people in his life. It's awesome and scary how much he loves our kids.

You sound like the kind of person a father would be mighty damn proud of and grateful for.

Thanks :) I hope he was. He and I had a bit of a rocky start together - typical stepdad stepdaughterdynamic. It wasn't until my teens that we started to get closer - oddly, it was music, football andfishing that brought us to common ground :)

cwheelie:digitalrain: I stumbled across an unexpected gift, though. Back in 2004, Nils Lofgren, who had been a Rockville / DC area localmusician back in the day, had come back to Rockville and did a lot of studio recording there. My dad was very goodfriends w/ the owner of the studio and a musician in his own right and also had a fair amount of production know how.

He helped with the recording and production of a lot of Nils' music in the studio that year, which is cool. But the reallycool thing is that I was on YouTube about an hour ago and just because I wanted to hear the song, I searched forGrin's "Like Rain" and happened to come up with a version that had been recorded live in Rockville in 2004. I waslistening to it and holy crap - in the harmonies, there was my dad's voice. He was singing backup ...

Grew up in central VA in the 70's - Grin was hot! I'm guessing Nils hasn't done any flips on stage in a while

I got a lot of my musical tastes from my dad - when I was a kid, the music he and his band played was pretty much allI listened to. He LOVED Grin, Springsteen, etc... "Like Rain" was one of his favorite songs. Nils' voice has held uppretty well from what I was able to tell in the video.

SearchN:My wife's Grandfather died right before Christmas. Luckily for us, we had our child in October so she was around to spend Thanksgiving with him. He had the chance to meet her, hold her and play with her. Lots of photos were taken. She won't remember, but at least she had the chance to meet him.

/Good for you Lady.//You did it the right way.

My story is all over this thread, but I don't know if my daughter will remember her grandpa. I was 18 mos. when my maternal grandpa died. I was the only grandkid he ever got to see and from what my mom, dad, and all my aunts and uncles told me (my mom has 3 brothers and 3 sisters) is that he was an awesome grandpa. It wasn't until we had a family reunion when I was 18 when I really missed him. His brothers kept telling me how great he was and how proud he would have been of us (my siblings and cousins).

digitalrain:Oh my god I was bawling as I read TFA. My dad died of cancer back in 06. He lived his last days in Tennessee, in hisparents' living room, overlooking the lake he loved to fish and boat in. I was fortunate enough to be able to be therefor his last days. I remember calling my mom to let her know for certain that I was coming and when she went to put thephone to my dad's ear, she warned me not to expect him to say anything because he didn't talk much anymore. I toldmy dad to hang on and that I was coming.

He lived for 3 days after I got there. In the space of a day in a half, he went from sort of being able to talk to not at all.His last words - literally - were, "Well f*ck shiat!" which he uttered when I told him that his oldest buddy was driving upfrom Florida to see him.

His last day on this earth was a good one. All of his close friends and family were there, music on the stereo, and wehad highlights from his beloved Redskins' glory days on the TV. We ordered in chinese food and were sitting aroundtalking and reminiscing and all of a sudden it's like all of the air went out of the room and we all of us looked over atmy dad at the same moment and we knew that he was gone ...

An interesting thing happened right after this ^^^^^ happened. Naturally, everyone was crying. I had had to call one ofmy dad's friends who had left less than an hour before my dad died and tell him that my dad had passed. After that,all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball. My grandpa went to call hospice so that they could send someone out to getmy dad's body.

So he goes over to the phone, dials a number and we hear him say, "Can you please send someone out to get thebody? He's dead."

Followed by a couple of heartbeats of silence and then

"I'm so sorry ma'am, I must have the wrong number."

Every single one of us in the room went from tears to near peeing our pants laughter in the blink of an eye. I like tothink that it was my dad's last gift to us - that we would find laughter even after he was gone.

My dad was dying from cancer and he was pretty much bedridden.He didn't want to die in his bedroom, he wanted to be close to the action of the house.Sooooo....

We emptied the dining room (which adjoined the living room) and Hospice brought us a hospital bed so he could get really comfortable.Many friends and family visited. There were some small parties and the full gamut of emotions.Dear ol' dad enjoyed it and we are forever happy because he died a mostly happy guy.

His greatest joke was as he looked at my mom, "it's a lot more fun to croak at 69... ya'll may want to leave the dining room."

\if you know someone who volunteers or works with Hospice, thank them. They deserve it.

digitalrain:digitalrain: Oh my god I was bawling as I read TFA. My dad died of cancer back in 06. He lived his last days in Tennessee, in hisparents' living room, overlooking the lake he loved to fish and boat in. I was fortunate enough to be able to be therefor his last days. I remember calling my mom to let her know for certain that I was coming and when she went to put thephone to my dad's ear, she warned me not to expect him to say anything because he didn't talk much anymore. I toldmy dad to hang on and that I was coming.

He lived for 3 days after I got there. In the space of a day in a half, he went from sort of being able to talk to not at all.His last words - literally - were, "Well f*ck shiat!" which he uttered when I told him that his oldest buddy was driving upfrom Florida to see him.

His last day on this earth was a good one. All of his close friends and family were there, music on the stereo, and wehad highlights from his beloved Redskins' glory days on the TV. We ordered in chinese food and were sitting aroundtalking and reminiscing and all of a sudden it's like all of the air went out of the room and we all of us looked over atmy dad at the same moment and we knew that he was gone ...

An interesting thing happened right after this ^^^^^ happened. Naturally, everyone was crying. I had had to call one ofmy dad's friends who had left less than an hour before my dad died and tell him that my dad had passed. After that,all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball. My grandpa went to call hospice so that they could send someone out to getmy dad's body.

So he goes over to the phone, dials a number and we hear him say, "Can you please send someone out to get thebody? He's dead."

Followed by a couple of heartbeats of silence and then

"I'm so sorry ma'am, I must have the wrong number."

Every single one of us in the room went from tears to near peeing our pants laughter in the blink of an eye. I like tothink that it was my dad's last gift to us - that we ...

digitalrain:digitalrain: Oh my god I was bawling as I read TFA. My dad died of cancer back in 06. He lived his last days in Tennessee, in hisparents' living room, overlooking the lake he loved to fish and boat in. I was fortunate enough to be able to be therefor his last days. I remember calling my mom to let her know for certain that I was coming and when she went to put thephone to my dad's ear, she warned me not to expect him to say anything because he didn't talk much anymore. I toldmy dad to hang on and that I was coming.

He lived for 3 days after I got there. In the space of a day in a half, he went from sort of being able to talk to not at all.His last words - literally - were, "Well f*ck shiat!" which he uttered when I told him that his oldest buddy was driving upfrom Florida to see him.

His last day on this earth was a good one. All of his close friends and family were there, music on the stereo, and wehad highlights from his beloved Redskins' glory days on the TV. We ordered in chinese food and were sitting aroundtalking and reminiscing and all of a sudden it's like all of the air went out of the room and we all of us looked over atmy dad at the same moment and we knew that he was gone ...

An interesting thing happened right after this ^^^^^ happened. Naturally, everyone was crying. I had had to call one ofmy dad's friends who had left less than an hour before my dad died and tell him that my dad had passed. After that,all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball. My grandpa went to call hospice so that they could send someone out to getmy dad's body.

So he goes over to the phone, dials a number and we hear him say, "Can you please send someone out to get thebody? He's dead."

Followed by a couple of heartbeats of silence and then

"I'm so sorry ma'am, I must have the wrong number."

Every single one of us in the room went from tears to near peeing our pants laughter in the blink of an eye. I like tothink that it was my dad's last gift to us - that we ...

Just found out I have cancer... so far the news is that it's one that's "fixable", but I'm still getting some tests done before the surgery.

But this is something that I have always understood.... wanting to be around to see the world, the kids, the grandkids, etc... thanks to the fact that my mother died when she was 40 and me 13... and she never got to see so much, what I accomplished, my children, my wife, etc... the fact that she loved gadgets and technology, only to have missed the internet and everything that technology can offer now.

If I was to learn that my time was limited, I certainly would do similar to what she did and leave recordings, etc. for the grandkids that I might have one day.

So good for her and her family... that was a lot of awesome in an otherwise very sad situation.

imfallen_angel:Just found out I have cancer... so far the news is that it's one that's "fixable", but I'm still getting some tests done before the surgery.

But this is something that I have always understood.... wanting to be around to see the world, the kids, the grandkids, etc... thanks to the fact that my mother died when she was 40 and me 13... and she never got to see so much, what I accomplished, my children, my wife, etc... the fact that she loved gadgets and technology, only to have missed the internet and everything that technology can offer now.

If I was to learn that my time was limited, I certainly would do similar to what she did and leave recordings, etc. for the grandkids that I might have one day.

So good for her and her family... that was a lot of awesome in an otherwise very sad situation.

As said, it's according to the docs and the technician, a fairly common one (Thyroid), and they've not seen a death from it in all their years...

Looking up the information on it, it does come out as an "easily" treatable one, with the survival rates I've seen are 87%, but I'm guessing those include the untreated people.

The one rough part with it, is that most of my relatives have died from one form or another of cancer... and a bit over two years ago, my sister died three months after finding a lump in her breast. Sad thing is, after over 10 years of us not being in touch at all (except for a phone call about my father's death about 6 months prior to this), I ended up going to the hospital and spent the day with her, which turned out to be her last one.

The Irish grandmother of a friend of mine invited all the family to a party at her daughter's house to celebrate her 90th birthday. As the last guest left she sat down the kitchen, said to her daughter "Thank you, dear. That was lovely", closed her eyes, and died.

Primitive Screwhead:tricycleracer: Either I'm a robot or Fark is inhabited by the most emotional folks on the Internet.

You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise.It's crawling towards you.You reach down and flip the tortoise over on its back, tricycleracerThe tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over.But it can't.Not without your help.But you're not helping.Why is that, tricycleracer?